Building panel



Oct. 5, 1965 J. R. DRESSER ETAL 3,209,507

BUILDING PANEL Original Filed July 26, 1957 INVENTOR,

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T W MR United States Patent 3,209,507 BUILDING PANEL James Robert Dresser, Hopkins, Minn, and Robert A. Rosenthal, Madison, Wis.; said Dresser assignor of thirty-seven and one-half percent to R. N. Howton, Williams, Ariz.

Original application July 26, 1957, Ser. No. 674,339, now Patent No. 3,031,043, dated Apr. 24, 1963. Divided and this application Apr. 23, 1962, Ser. No. 189,629

1 Claim. (Ci. 52-589) This application is a divisional application of application Ser. No. 674,339, filed July 26, 1957, now Patent 3,031,043.

This invention relates, generally, to building construction and it has particular relation to prefabricated building construction.

A prefabricated building, such as a dwelling house, garage, school, factory, etc., as presently understood is one which either is constructed at a factory and shipped as a unit to the site or the wall, partitions, roof, etc., are fabricated at the factory, either partially or entirely, and then assembled at the site. In either case a conventional building of the custom built type is the result. While some economies can be effected over the strictly custom built type of building, the so-called prefabricated building still is essentially a custom built house. In order to reduce further the cost of such constructions, identical or only slightly varying types are often employed. Usually they are unattractive and generally they lead to a condition where values tend to diminish faster than they otherwise would if the houses were dissimilar and more attractively constructed.

It has heretofore been proposed to employ oil the site manufactured structural units which can be assembled at the site to form the building walls. However, they have been expensive to construct and difficult to assemble. Generally they are limited to use for the walls and partitions. They have not been readily adapted for floor and roof construction.

. Accordingly, among the objects of this invention are:

To provide a single universal panel construction that can be assembled at the site to form part or all of the floors, walls, partitions, and roof of a building; to construct the panel of light weight, weather proof material in such manner that the cost is a minimum; to arrange the panel in such manner that it can be assembled with other like panels by unskilled laborers; to provide the panel construction so that it can be disassembled from' other panels without damage; to provide different interior and exterior finishes on the panels; to construct each panel of spaced apart relatively thin metallic or plastic skins and to electrically and heat insulate the skins on the opposite sides of the panel from each other; to interconnect the outer metallic skins and the inner metallic skins of adjacent panels and to energize them electrically to the end that they may serve to distribute electrical energy throughout the building; to interconnect adjacent panels by detachable links; to hold each link in place by a cooperating lock; to construct the lock of conducting material and arrange for it to electrically interconnect the metallic skins of adjacent panels; to fill the space between the skins with light weight, heat insulating material; and to provide for the construction of a large number of buildings of different design, appearance and size using a single panel design, or a combination of panels.

Other objects of this invention will, in part, be obvious and in part appear hereinafter.

This invention is disclosed in the embodiments thereof shown in the accompanying drawings and it comprises the ice features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts that will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the appended claim.

For a more complete understanding of the nature and scope of this invention reference can be had to the following detailed description, taken together with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan or elevation view of one side of a typical panel constructed in accordance with this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a plan or elevation view of the opposite side of the panel shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a vertical sectional view taken generally along the line 33 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a plan or elevation view showing how five of the panels illustrated in FIGURES 1, 2 and 3 can be assembled in a unitary construction;

FIGURE 5 is a vertical sectional view, at an enlarged scale, taken generally along the line 5-5 of FIGURE 4 and showing one form of joint construction for fastening adjacent panels together, it being understood that the sec tion is typical of any of the joints between adjacent panels.

Referring now to FIGURES 1-5 of the drawings, it will be observed that one form of construction of the panel 14 is there illustrated together with one arrangement for interconnecting adjacent panels. Each panel 43 can be made up of four triangular panels shown generally at 65 in FIGURES 1 and 2. The face of the panel 65 as shown in FIGURE 1 is formed by three triangular skins 66, 67 and 68 which are sheets of relatively thin metallic material such as sheet aluminum. The skins 66, 67 and 68 and like skins disclosed herein can be formed of thermoplastic sheet material and also of a glass product sold under the trade name Pyroceram. They are arranged in concave configuration to take advantage of the stressed skin construction. The opposite face or side of the triangular panel 65, shown in FIGURE 2, is merely a triangular skin 69 which overlies the three triangular skins 66, 67 and 68 of the other side. It will be observed that edge 70 of the skin 66 and edge 71 of the skin 69 are coplanar. Similarly, edges 72-73 and 74-75 are coplanar, thereby making it possible to receive a closure plate 76 of uniform width. The adjacent panel is provided with a corresponding closure plate 77 and they have nesting intermediate portions 78 and 79.

The skins 66, 67 and 68 can be spaced from the skin 69 by struts 80 and 81, as shown in FIGURE 3. Alternatively, or in addition, the space between the skins on the opposite sides of the panel 65 can be filled with a suitable insulation such as a rigid porous sponge like insulation. Also the space between the skins can be evacuated to provide insulation therebetween. Such a construction is facilitated when the skins are formed of plastic material, such as thermoplastic sheet material.

In order to join the triangular panels 65 together, strips 82 are secured along the juxtaposed edges and they are provided with shoulders 83 for slidably receiving thereon the link 84. A dovetail connection is provided so that when the links 84 are slid over the juxtaposed shoulders 83 of the strips 82, the adjacent panels 65 will be secured firmly together and yet they can be disassembled merely by removing the links 84.

In FIGURE 4 it will be observed that four of the triangular panels 65 are employed to make up a single rectangular panel. By placing the concave portions of the panels 43 on one side or the other, different appearances can be provided as will be obvious.

While various details of construction have been described with considerable particularity herein, it will be understood that a wide variety of combinations can be made employing the principles of this invention. Accordingly, since many combinations and modifications of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it is intended that all matters shown in the accompanying drawings and described hereinbefore shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed as new is:

A building panel comprising, in combination, a pair of spaced relatively thin metallic skins having matching coplanar edges, one of said skins being fiat and triangular and the other being concave and formed of three flat triangular sections, a closure plate of uniform width along each pair of edges interconnecting the same, and connecting means along each longitudinal edge of each closure plate for joining the same to a closure plate of a like panel.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 6/22 Brandt 2024 1/33 Junkers 18934 12/37 Dean 189-34 1/42 Becker 18936 2/46 Guignon 2092 8/46 Kratzmaier 18936 2/53 Krauss 18936 X 10/57 Sullivan 1892 X 4/62 Dresser et al. 17448 FOREIGN PATENTS 1/ 36 France.

RICHARD W. COOKE, JR., Primary Examiner.

JOHN P. WILDMAN, JACOB L. NACKENOFF,

Examiners. 

